Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

calculated. The effect size indicates whether recidi-

vism was lower for the boot camp participants or the

comparison group and how large this difference was.

The researchers found that the recidivism rates of the

participants and of the control group that did attend a

boot camp were almost exactly the same. This was

true for both the adult and the juvenile programs.

Thus, from this research, it does not appear that juve-

nile boot camps are effective in reducing the later

criminal activities of juvenile delinquents.

Some research has indicated that boot camps have

a positive impact on participants’ attitudes. In this

research, the participants were found to have become

less antisocial and develop better attitudes toward staff

and programs. However, these results are not consis-

tent. It may be that the results differ depending on the

emphasis of the camp. Boot camps that emphasize

therapeutic treatment may have a more positive

impact on attitudes than camps that emphasize basic

military training, consisting of physical training, drill

and ceremony, and hard labor. We don’t have enough

research to clearly assess whether the camps have a

positive impact on attitudes.

Another way the effectiveness of boot camps can

be studied is to examine the cost of the programs. It is

costly to build and operate facilities. If the boot camps

widen the net by putting juveniles in facilities when

they would otherwise have been in the community,

there may be a substantial cost to the programs. On

the other hand, if the camps reduce the amount of time

juveniles spend in facilities, they could reduce costs.

Most juvenile programs are relatively small, so the

costs of the programs may not have a large impact on

the jurisdictions operating them. This may be the rea-

son why there is no research investigating the issue of

the cost of juvenile boot camps.

The Future of Juvenile Boot Camps

Boot camps were a popular correctional approach that

fit the philosophy of the conservative 1980s and 1990s.

The programs appeared tough on crime and therefore

answered politicians’ needs to show that they supported

tough programs. They answered the public’s desire to

punish juveniles instead of coddling them. The media

liked them because they made good short news pieces

for national television. But will they last? This is a

question that many people are asking. There have been

deaths of both staff and juveniles in the boot camps; as

a result, people are beginning to question whether this

is good correctional practice. Critics continue to advo-

cate the elimination of the camps because they do not

follow the principles of effective correctional practice.

It is impossible to tell at this point whether boot camps

will continue to operate. Given the disappointing

results of the recidivism analyses, it appears that there

is little reason to continue to operate the camps. Unless

some additional justification for the camps is discov-

ered, most likely there will be fewer and fewer juvenile

boot camps in the future.

Doris Layton MacKenzie

See alsoAntisocial Personality Disorder; Juvenile Offenders

Further Readings

Gover, A. R., MaccKenzie, D. L., & Styve, G. J. (1999). The

environment and working conditions in juvenile boot

camps and traditional facilities. Journal of Criminal

Justice, 28(1), 53–68.

Lutz, F., & Murphy, D. (1999). Ultra-masculine prison

environments and inmate adjustment: It’s time to move

beyond the “boys will be boys” paradigm. Justice

Quarterly, 16(4), 709–733.

MacKenzie, D. L. (2006). What works in corrections?

Examining the criminal activities of offenders and

delinquents. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University

Press.

MacKenzie, D. L., & Armstrong, G. S. (Eds.). (2004).

Correctional boot camps: Military basic training or a

model for corrections? Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

JUVENILEOFFENDERS

Interest in juvenile offenders has increased in the past

few decades due to the large number of youths com-

ing into contact with the law and the rising violent

crime. Research by Howard Snyder and Melissa

Sickmund provides extensive juvenile population and

crime statistic data, and some of their pertinent infor-

mation is summarized here to provide a rough picture

of the characteristics of juvenile offenders in the

United States. From 1989 to the mid-1990s, juvenile

violent crime was on the rise, and it peaked in 1994.

From 1994 to 2003, the juvenile crime rate decreased,

with a particularly steep decline of 48% in the juve-

nile violent crime arrest rate. Juvenile offending

remains a significant social problem, and subgroups

Juvenile Offenders——— 431

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